Saturday, October 19, 2013

I know everyone stopped caring
about the Speech from the Throne on Thursday, including Prime Minister Harper,
who fled to Europe right after it was read Wednesday night to bring back every
Canadian a block of gouda. I’ve been busy the last few days though so forgive
me, but I’m just getting to the throne speech now.

I wanted to write something along
the lines of five likes and dislikes, but I found that, even when there were
things I liked, there were such caveats that it was hard to really call them
likes. So, instead, here’s some thoughts of things I like but am sceptical of, and things I straight-out dislike.

Probably the closest to a genuine
like was the commitment to lowering inter-provincial trade barriers. It’s an
important economic issue that doesn’t get enough attention. However, it’s not
the first time the Harper government has promised to do something about it.
About the only accomplishment I can point to on this front is wine, and I still
can’t get much BC wine in Ontario because the province isn’t on board. And that was a private member's bill. Besides, if Harper really wanted to address this, he may actually have to get into the same
room as the premiers. So I’m not holding my breath

The government said it “work in
partnership with industry to ensure that all major military purchases create
high-quality jobs for Canadian workers.” Good. If we’re going to spend billions
on new jets or ships, we should try to keep much of that money at home. If this
is the government policy though, it’s a new one. Take the F-35. While every
other country made a point of getting a guarantee that the vendor will spend X
dollars (usually equivalent to the contract value) in their country, Canada
pointedly did not. Our companies will compete on the open market for the work,
the government said. Yeah, except it’s not an open market when every other country
is getting guaranteed contracts.

The government promised an “updated
science, technology and innovation strategy.” This is important, we need one to
refocus both government and industry in this area. I look forward to reading
it. And I have been for some time. They were accused of lagging on this -- over three years ago.

The government promised to “renew
its efforts to address the issue of missing and murdered Aboriginal women.”
Since their efforts seem to largely be remaining the only group opposed to a national inquiry, I’m not sure how they plan to do that without a policy
change.

Now we’re into straight-out
dislikes. I think balanced budget legislation is stupid. It’s pseudo-populist
pandering, like fixed-election date laws. And just as easy to ignore, as we’ve
seen in the provinces where it’s been implemented. Besides, the Chretien and
Martin Liberal governments didn’t need balanced budget laws to turn the
Mulroney-era deficits into surplus. Perhaps the Conservatives do though, as
Harper and Jim Flaherty quickly turned those surpluses into deficits, even
before the recession and stimulus funding. This isn’t about budgeting, it’s
about trying to politically limit freedom of movement for a future Liberal (or,
sure, NDP) government, just as they’re starving government revenues. It’s an unnecessary
law though, something the Conservatives are supposed to be ideologically against.

Speaking of unnecessary laws,
they talk about red tape for small businesses in every throne speech, fiscal update
and budget. And they promise that “for every new regulation added, one must be
removed.” That’s just dumb. Yes, we should minimize unnecessary regulations.
But this kind of arbitrary approach to regulation isn’t particularly
productive, or helpful.

Finally, after all the hype about
a consumer agenda, there wasn’t much here. On roughly one page out of 24, we
got lowering roaming costs in Canada, unbundling cable packages, no fees for
paper bills, cheaper banking services, and something about ending “geographic
price discrimination.” I won’t say it’s disappointing, as I found the wholeconsumer-focus thing a distraction anyway. But to the extent they wanted to
accomplish something with it, I don’t think this does it. About the only real
thing is the cable thing, which will end up costing Canadians more anyways. As
will all these things; end the $1 for a paper bill, sure – they’ll just raise
rates by $1 instead. Consumers will always pay in the end. The geographic
pricing thing is impossible to tackle and will go nowhere.